awe, humility, hope and a few other things I might notice

Tag Archives: awe

The only swear words I ever heard my grandparents utter were the whispered particulars for the name of their adopted cat “Dee Gee”, my aunt’s cat that inexplicably preferred to live at their house instead of hers. Only somehow “DG” got reversed to “GD” by my grandfather.

“God…Damned…cat”.

I don’t know what DG’s name had meant before he became the bane of my grandparent’s meditative and previously cat free existence but perhaps it had something to do with the fact that DG was the only male among my aunt’s clan. My aunt was a collector of cats, mostly strays or kittens begotten before the vet could safely spay their mothers. She even sewed entire families of cats as beloved cotton calicos and ginghams with felt noses and soft wire whiskers. I think her all time record was 8 cats at once and that was when she lived in a farm house on 20 acres of land. Winter, “Winny”, was the sweetest, mittens was the warmest, not because her name implied a relationship to outerwear but because she slept within centimeters of the wood stove, but DG was a hunter and a sweetheart, the best God Damned all around cat I knew. Maybe that’s what they meant. It was hard to say whether my grandfather’s prickly salt and pepper haired chin dipped inwards for emphasis or for expletive.

Upon further reflection, I may have heard my aunt refer to him as “Damned Good cat”, hence the acronym DG fit more properly with both his personality and the service he unwittingly performed for her in finding another residence.

Awe. Sunday’s storm brought heavy freezing rain, then hail and 50mph winds, followed by 10 minutes of sun, then snow and wind and it repeated like that all day.

Watching the storm was a great show for me. I love a good storm, not the Life of Pi kind, but the safely watched from indoors or not far from home and not needing to go anywhere kind.

Nature is simply awesome. I have no power over it and I choose to call it beautiful, I have that luxury. I am wonderstruck by it strength, soothed by its sound and delighted by its purity. The rain, snow and wind created mountains and valleys in front of me. And, while I am not delighted by the booming sound of whatever it is on our roof that buckles when the temperature goes below 20F, the sound of snow falling tickles my ears and makes me more aware of sound itself. Also, there are few things I love more than a great field of freshly fallen, untouched snow. The vast expanses sparkle like the universe itself. So, before the snowplows start doing their work and before the shovelers start clearing their walks, I dwell in the tickling sound and the sparkling splendor and feel that I am receiving a gift from the infinite.